Janna Brancolini (Oct. 13 2025)
Trump loyalist Steve Bannon blasted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that the U.S. military will provide Qatar with access to an air base in Idaho.
Hegseth made the surprise decision on Friday that a “Qatari Emiri Air Force facility” will be built at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Elmore County, Idaho, leading to an outcry on both sides of the aisle.
The defense chief, who has rebranded his role as the “secretary of war,” later tried to clarify that Qatar “will not have their own base” or “anything like a base,” but apparently failed to reassure Bannon and other members of the America First movement.
During an appearance on Eric Bolling’s eponymous show on Real America’s Voice, the pro-MAGA network, Bolling said he didn’t understand why President Donald Trump’s administration would allow a Qatari base in Idaho.
President Trump's defense secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that a "Qatari Emiri Air Force facility" was being built at a U.S. Air Force base in Idaho.Win McNamee/Getty Images
Bannon agreed, saying he had “no idea what’s going on.”
“No foreign power should have a military base on the sacred soil of America,” he added. “Full stop.”
Despite blasting Qatar as “funders of terrorism” during his first term, Trump issued an executive order in late September granting the Gulf state a watered-down version of NATO’s Article 5 collective defense agreement.
Steve Bannon thinks that a Qatari air force "facility" and a collective defense agreement was the price President Trump paid for a peace deal between Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas.Win McNamee/Getty Images
Article 5 of the alliance’s founding treaty says that an attack against one NATO ally is considered an attack against all allies. In an unprecedented move, Trump’s executive order declared that any attack on Qatar would also be seen as a “threat to the peace and security of the United States.”
Bannon said he suspected that the Idaho base and collective defense agreement were the price the Trump administration had to pay to secure a peace deal between Hamas and Israel, since the agreement needed buy-in from Arab states.
“With the Article 5 protection he gave to Qatar, I throw it back to this is part of the price we’re paying for the Israel First crowd, the Tel Aviv Levins and others, that had support for [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” he said.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Department of Defense for comment.
On Friday, Hegseth appeared with Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani during an event at the Pentagon to discuss developments at Mountain Home Air Force Base.
“The location will host a contingent of Qatari F-15s and pilots to enhance our combined training, increase, lethality, interoperability. It’s just another example of our partnership, and I hope you know, your Excellency, that you can count on us,” Hegseth said.
Following a swift, bipartisan backlash, Hegseth attempted to clarify on social media that Qatar would not have its own U.S. base.
“The U.S. military has a long-standing partnership w/ Qatar, including today’s announced cooperation w/ F-15QA aircraft,” he wrote on his personal X account. “However, to be clear, Qatar will not have their own base in the United States—nor anything like a base. We control the existing base, like we do with all partners,” he wrote in a post.
Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-bannon-slams-pete-hegseths-screwed-up-military-plan/
ASSURING THE SECURITY OF THE STATE OF QATAR
Executive Orders (September 29, 2025)
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in recognition of the enduring alliance between the United States and the State of Qatar, it is hereby ordered:
Section 1. Policy. Over the years, the United States and the State of Qatar have been bound together by close cooperation, shared interests, and the close relationship between our armed forces. The State of Qatar has hosted United States forces, enabled critical security operations, and stood as a steadfast ally in pursuit of peace, stability, and prosperity, both in the Middle East and abroad, including as a mediator that has assisted the United States’ attempts to resolve significant regional and global conflicts. In recognition of this history, and in light of the continuing threats to the State of Qatar posed by foreign aggression, it is the policy of the United States to guarantee the security and territorial integrity of the State of Qatar against external attack.
Sec. 2. Commitment. (a) The United States shall regard any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure of the State of Qatar as a threat to the peace and security of the United States.
(b) In the event of such an attack, the United States shall take all lawful and appropriate measures — including diplomatic, economic, and, if necessary, military — to defend the interests of the United States and of the State of Qatar and to restore peace and stability.
(c) The Secretary of War, in coordination with the Secretary of State and the Director of National Intelligence, shall maintain joint contingency planning with the State of Qatar to ensure a rapid and coordinated response to any foreign aggression against the State of Qatar.
(d) The Secretary of State shall reaffirm this assurance to the State of Qatar and coordinate with allies and partners to ensure complementary measures of support.
(e) The Secretary of State shall continue to partner with the State of Qatar as and when appropriate for conflict resolution and mediation in recognition of the State of Qatar ‘s extensive diplomatic and mediation experience.
Sec. 3. Implementation. All executive departments and agencies shall take appropriate steps, consistent with law, to implement this order.
Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
(d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of State.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 29, 2025.
Source: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/assuring-the-security-of-the-state-of-qatar/
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